Photos: Mostly Camberwell, At Night

Recently, I’ve been posting a variety of photos from my visit to the US in January, to campaign for the closure of Guantánamo on the 11th anniversary of the opening of the prison (see here, here, here and here), my more recent visit to Brighton for another Guantánamo event (see here and here), and the huge protest in Lewisham on January 26 to save the hospital from butchers in NHS management and the government (here and here). As a result, I have rather neglected my project to record the whole of London by bike, which I began last May, although I continue to cycle and photograph the city, and now have an unpublished archive of at least 10,000 photos, which, realistically, will only be made available if I make the project into something more formal than it is at present. Any advice on this — leads, contacts, funders — is most welcome.

To make amends for my distraction regarding my London project, I’m posting my 75th set of London photos, which features photos I took at night just two days ago, and I’ll follow up soon with other London sets, interspersed with more photos of New York from my US trip, and a last set — for now — of Brighton.

The photos in this set are from a bike ride I took, on February 5, 2013, from my home in Brockley, in south-east London, to Camberwell, also in south east London, but further west, and back again. This is a six-mile round trip, and I undertook it to collect my son Tyler from an art class he is taking, organised by the South London Gallery and Southwark Schools’ Learning Partnership at a building that belongs to the University of the Arts London.

On the way, I had very little time to take photos, but I managed to capture a few locations in Brockley and Peckham, and I also took a few photos near the building where his art class takes place in Camberwell. On the way back, after putting Tyler on the train at Denmark Hill, I had the opportunity to take a few more photos — of some other locations in Camberwell, and one in Herne Hill, before the increasingly torrential rain forced me to give up, and I cycled back home as swiftly as possible.

I always love taking photos at night, and I hope you enjoy this set. I’ll be back, in the daytime, very soon, but for now please wander with me through the city at night, and explore some of its lesser known spaces and its hidden corners.

Thanks, Rita and Chris. Yes, the night really transforms places. That sounds prosaic, but often you don’t notice unless you’re really focused on it, as when you’re taking photos!
Chris, I look forward to that. There’s a shot from the train between Surrey Quays and New Cross that I need to capture from a moving train – just milliseconds available to get it! It’s a giant rubbish-processing plant near the Combined Heat and Power plant in New Cross, and there’s a massive graveyard of mattresses there. i just noticed it a few days ago.